Sina is struggling to finds its way in a mobile world. To make things even more difficult, Sina needs to walk a fine line with China's strict censorship laws. To help Fools understand the complex inter-workings of this company, we've put together a brief slideshow on what Sina does, how it makes its money, and what future prospects the company is working towards.

1. January 25, 2013
Is SINA The of China?
In the early 2000s, SINA was the “Yahoo of China”. As a web portal, SINA
partnered with online media companies and local newspapers to deliver
content on everything – from political to entertainment news. The
company makes money from multimedia ads. 1

2. January 25, 2013
Its Portals Are Moneymakers
Percentage of Revenue From
76%
Advertising
72%
64%
2009 2010 2011
SINA breaks down reveneu by “Advertising” and “Non-Advertising Revenue.
Through Fiscal Year 2011, Weibo does not count towards advertising budget.
SINA.com and SINA.cn are the company’s cash cow. As China
continues to modernize and ad dollars move from offline to online, SINA has
seen its revenues increase accordingly. As of last fiscal year (2011), SINA
earned $76.7 million in revenue.
2

3. January 25, 2013
Falling Behind Competitor - QQ.com
#1 Web Portal in 2013 and Beyond!
Baidu was and is the #1 site in China. Taobao.com, an e-commerce site is #3 as of Jan. 2013.
SINA was the #2 most visited site in China back in Nov. 2005.
Conglomerate Tencent and it’s web portal QQ.com has beat out SINA. SINA
has dropped to #4.
Source 1 : http://newsletters.fool.com/18/coverage/issues/2005/11/01/03.aspx 3
Source 2: http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/CN

4. January 25, 2013
The Portal Is Dying
How can we become the „entrance‟ to the mobile internet — we‟re
all bewildered by that, and we‟re anxious or perhaps even
frightened by it. If we can‟t become that „entrance‟ then the value
of our business and our market share will not change
[i.e., improve] significantly.
- SINA Vice-chair Wang Gaofei , Aug. 9 2012
In Fool Speak: SINA can’t become a web portal on mobile if
mobile users don’t need it. They have content apps.
4
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/sina-vp-wang-gaofei-talks-stats-weibo-woes/

5. January 25, 2013
SINA Must Diversify Its Revenue Streams
Revenue Breakdown
There are 564 million
internet users, but mobile
is quickly becoming the
platform of choice with
420 million mobile users.
Most web portal companies
have diversified beyond
desktop-based revenue.
Unfortunately, SINA is
finding it difficult to
monetize mobile.
Best available data from Q1 2012 shown here for relative comparison.
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/comparing-revenue-chinas-major-internet-portals-tencent-kicking-ass-sina-872/
5
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/social-media-and-social-marketing-china-stats-2013/

6. January 25, 2013
Here Comes Weibo – the “Twitter of China”
SINA launched Weibo.com back in Just like Twitter, Weibo allows
2009, and the site just came out with users to post
a partial English version in January messages, follow other users
2013. and repost a user’s comment.
Though Weibo.com includes Weibo users can also post
gaming, music, and other audio comments, view
services, “Weibo” is a general term threaded comments, and post
for micro-blogging, but many use emoticons.
the word to refer to SINA’s service
specifically.
6

7. January 25, 2013
SINA’s Weibo Ad Revenue Is Growing
Percentage of Advertising Revenue
16%
10%
2nd Qtr 2012 3rd Qtr 2012
SINA makes money from Weibo through online ads (like the NBA ad
above), special services for corporate and VIP accounts and social gaming.
Weibo’s percentage of SINA’s ad revenue is small, but accelerating.
Weibo’s ad revenue spiked from 10% to 16% of advertising revenue
over last quarter. 7
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/16/net-us-sina-results-idUSBRE8AE1VL20121116

8. January 25, 2013
Weibo Users Are Coming Online In
THE MILLIONS
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
2010 2011 2012
Weibo’s users have grown significantly over the past three years. Weibo
has 424 million users; for comparison, Twitter has about 640
million users.
8
Source: http://www.livescience.com/26058-ford-car-apps-china.html

9. January 25, 2013
Still, Weibo Needs To Expand Even Faster
Millions of Users
Netease Weibo
SINA Weibo
Tencent Wiebo
0 200 400 600
SINA Weibo is growing, but it can’t afford to let up. The company just
launched an English version of its website to compete with Tencent Weibo.
9
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/netease-weibo-260-million-users-numbers/

10. January 25, 2013
Where Is SINA Now?
The company is at a crossroads.
With declining website use and difficulty monetizing
Weibo, SINA is doing everything it can to become a
mobile-first company…
Here are four ways SINA might secure a profitable
future.
10

11. January 25, 2013
Building a Domestic “Weibo” Network
In July, SINA partnered with Baidu In the same month, SINA partnered with
(Nasdaq: BIDU) to integrate Weibo an online TV provider to launch a
into Baidu’s new cloud services – “social television” service. By
including its new mobile operating expanding content offerings online, SINA
system. hopes to retain Weibo users.
In return, Baidu became SINA’s
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-12/sina-offers-web-tv-service-to-win-china-
default search provider across SINA’s social-networkers.html
services.
11
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/baidu-sina-partner-mobile-search-cloud-computing/

12. January 25, 2013
Building an International “Weibo” Network
In June, SINA signed an In Sept., Apple's (Nasdaq: At the Consumer Electronic
agreement with social-gaming AAPL) latest Chinese version Show this month, Ford
company Zynga (NASDAQ: of iOS came preloaded with (NYSE: FD) announced a list
ZNGA) to offer the popular share buttons for SINA of new voice-activated car
game “Draw Something” on Weibo, much like Facebook apps in its latest
under Weibo Games. and Twitter share buttons. infotainment car system –
and SINA Weibo made the
iOS6 users can post to SINA list.
Weibo from their camera
app, photos, Apple Maps, Safari
and Apple's Game Center .
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/ford-sina-weibo-support/
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-12/sina-offers- Source: http://www.techinasia.com/apples-ios-6-sina-weibo-
web-tv-service-to-win-china-social-networkers.html integration-china/
12

13. January 25, 2013
Copying Its Way Into The Future
In July, SINA cloned a popular, Silicon In Nov., SINA launched “Wei
Valley mobile social network and Renmai” or “Weibo Connections”.
renamed it “Meyou”. The Meyou app is The LinkedIn-like product allows
akin to Facebook’s mobile app, but with a you to connect with
more intuitive design and mobile-first “people”, “companies”, and
experience. The app only lets you “opportunities”. You can also place
connect to at most 50 friends. people into different networking
circles.
Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/12/15/1-company-vying-
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/sina-meyou-path-clone-app/ to-be-the-linkedin-of-china.aspx 13

14. January 25, 2013
Investing in Your Location
In July, SINA launched iMaps (“Love Car Maps”) for Android and iOS.
iMaps uses Weibo to help users in three ways: finding gas stations and parking
spaces, getting routes and traffic guidance, crowdsourcing route reports. With your
data, SINA may soon launch more location-based tools to rake in more earnings.
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/sina-imap-app-for-chinese-drivers/
14

15. January 25, 2013
But before you invest…
…be wary…
15

16. January 25, 2013
SINA Censors…But It’s Not That Bad
To comply with China’s censorship
laws, SINA employs about 1,000
workers to censor posts and even
delete accounts. However, all
Chinese companies must enact similar
censorship measures.
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/sina-weibo-censorship-in-2012-review/
Search results for members of the
Communist Party, and controversial
people, are delayed on Weibo for
about a week so censors can make
changes to posts before large
groups of people can see them.
- Image source: Wikimedia Commons
16
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/netease-weibo-260-million-users-numbers/

17. January 25, 2013
So What Does Censorship Mean For SINA?
The Government Citizen Attitudes
But government censorship is a ,0
complex issue. Harvard researchers
found that Beijing actually allows
government criticism to shine
through on some blogs 84%
"Don't
“This is a city government [Yulin City, Shaanxi] that Care"
treats life with contempt, this is government officials run
amuck, a city government without justice, a city
government that delights in that which is vulgar, a place
where officials all have mistresses, a city government 84% of China’s Netizens have an “open
that is shameless with greed, a government that trades
dignity for power, a government without humanity, a
attitude” towards “personal privacy”
government that has no limits on immorality, a online.
government that goes back on its word, a government
that treats kindness with ingratitude, a government that
cares nothing for posterity. . . ”
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/social-media-and-social-marketing-china-stats-2013/
- Unknown, Source Website Unknown
17
Source: http://www.techinasia.com/netease-weibo-260-million-users-numbers/